Thread: Upgrade Time for my Trolling Motor- thoughts?

I prefer my motorguide 82lb thrust digital for power and manuverability. Instant control works for the kind of fishing i do. I even long line troll with mine. Didn't choose the i-pilot as i dont troll often enough to need that function. Take your time and get the one for the style of fishing you'll be doing most. Bells and whistles dont mean a thing if you're not going to use them. My MG digital works perfect for me.

Yea I have several winter projects for my boat to do. But by spring I should be done and not have to worry about anything but fishing.

Yea like I said I have had no issues with my Motor guide, I just feel that at 10 years old I can get a new one that is more efficient for my boat, so that I can stay out on the water even longer. Mine has been a work horse, taking me everywhere I wanted to go with no issues. If I had a aluminum boat I would just keep it and put it on it.

Ok so I found out that I have a 3 prong plug that goes into a wire set of 2 postives and a neg, which then lead me to look at the back of the boat and dug up into it and pulled out a second positive connection with a breaker on it. I looked up the wire system and saw that it said 12/24 connection on it. But it didnt give me any details other than that.

Does that mean I am already wired for a 24volt set up? And that all I would have to do is get another batery and a new 24 volt trolling motor and I am set? Thanks.

I have no experience with factory wiring, but I know what it takes to go from 12v to 24v.

Let's say your current system is a bow-mounted motor, no other devices on this circuit, one stern-mounted 12v battery, and 2 wires in between. If you have the space to locate a second 12v battery near the current one, all you should need is a jumper. Disconnect one wire from your current TM battery and hook it to the same pole of the new battery. Then hook the jumper between the disconnected poles of the two batteries. You will now have 24v at the hookup point on the bow of your boat. Obviously, you can't switch a single pair of wires from 12v to 24v if your finder or any other 12v device is on the same circuit. I have a heavy pair of dedicated wires from my 2 batteries in the stern to the TM up front and a lighter set of wires hooking my finder to the single 12v starter battery.

If your existing wires are heavy enough to handle a 12v TM, then they should do even better with 24v. Nevertheless, it's a good idea to use a meter to test for voltage drop. If the resistance of the wire causes too much drop, go for heavier wire. Remember--voltage drop shortens fishing time.

you should look on the TM wire you have now and see if what gauge or awg it is. If its 6awg/gauge, I would think that would be sufficent to go 24v, but you can always contact the boat mfgr and see what they say before putting new wire in.

Ok I finally was able to see it on the wires, yes it is 6 GA wire. Here are some pictures of what it all looks like.

First pic here is the front panel where the TM plugs into boat, there is a neg and battery 1 and 2 positive leads.


Second pic is the wires coming from front of boat to rear and showing one connected to a TM battery, and a second just laying around. And you can see in yellow there the inline fuse used.



The third pic shows the breaker on the batter terminal connector, 50 amp

I'm not an expert but looks like you are set up to go 24v w/o much work at all. I would check the breaker size for the new one and go with it, and make sure you have an inline fuse on the 2nd power wire as well just to be on the safe side. As some say, go big or go home. LOL let us know what you do.

Originally Posted by jimp

I'm not an expert but looks like you are set up to go 24v w/o much work at all. I would check the breaker size for the new one and go with it, and make sure you have an inline fuse on the 2nd power wire as well just to be on the safe side. As some say, go big or go home. LOL let us know what you do.

Thanks a lot bud. Yea after I started looking closer and doing some more research I started thinking what you just said was true before you said it, lol. I will deffinately put another inline fuste on it, and also look into the breaker and see if I will need to change it or not. Going to look at some TM next week I hope, but might have to wait till after the weekend of the 6th. That is my b-day and I am treating myself by going down to MS to fish one of those famous big 4 lakes.

But I will let you guys know what I do and how it works out. Thanks for all your guys help, its been so long since I have had to do anything to my boat I almost forgot where things were.